The archaeologist and adventurer Samantha Swift is searching for the Scroll of Wealth, a lost relic that once belonged to Alexander The Great. While she is exploring some forgotten ruins, a secret brotherhood of hooded men starts to get in the way, trying to stop her from finding the artifact. Many strange incidents lead her to a brand new quest, where she must uncover the truth about the legendary King Midas and his unique gift of turning everything to gold.

Samantha Swift and The Golden Touch is the sequel to a previous title combining adventure and hidden object game elements. As Samantha, the player enters excavation sites and ancient chambers, represented by screen backgrounds showing mostly static scenes. The objective is to search the locations and click on all the objects listed at the bottom interface. Some items are written in blue, indicating the need of an extra step to get them. Some of the collected objects are stored in the inventory at the bottom right. They can be dragged and dropped on parts of the scenery, to gain access to one of the required blue entries.

Some places have puzzles that bring up a separate interactive screen. They are old mechanisms and classic puzzles that can be solved using inventory items or by direct manipulation of their parts. The game keeps moving from location to location, with cutscenes appearing after major plot changes.

Clicking on any list item shows its silhouette on the radar scanner screen at the bottom left. The hint button shoots a green electric arc towards one of the required objects, pointing out its position. Extra hints can be found and collected on the scenery, as lightning bolt icons.